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Bumbling Terrorists
Tell me if you've heard this one: An FBI agent infiltrates an actual, figurative or virtual mosque, finds the most gullible and angry dork around, encourages him to get even, plots out some dubious plan, gives him bombs that don't quite work, then arrests this dupe to much fanfare.
In every country, at all times, young men can be led to kill or be killed, commit mass murder or blow themselves up. These callow and reckless males need to prove that they are men at all. Many also don't think they'll ever die. Without this endless stream of puppets, fall guys, patsies and war heroes, cynical old farts won't be able to achieve most of their greedy or evil objectives.
As we encroached into Pakistan and as our drones zapped their citizens, the FBI set up sting operations to entrap Pakistani-Americans. They're terrorists, you see, we have to kill them. Now, as we're eyeing Somalia, a Somali-American fool is conveniently arrested. This incident also serves to dampen the outrage over the state-sanctioned sexual molestation at our airports.
Why Somalia? Why now? Follow the money. It's the oil and natural gas. Before he was ousted in a coup in 1991, Mohammed Siad Barre ruled Somalia for 20 years. As with nearly every other dictator, Barre was very chummy with Uncle Sam. He liked us to much, he leased nearly two-thirds [!] of Somali territory to four American oil companies, Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Phillips. Most of this dough went into Barre's personal bank account, of course, not the country treasury. With Barre gone, however, we can't get to that land to drill, baby, drill. The demonization of Somalia is likely prep work for an invasion, unless we'll be too far broke to send over 50,000 or so of our youngish crazies.
Uncle Sam always prattles on about democracy, but dictators are his favorite kind of humans. In granting Uncle Sam-let's just call him Samo, as in Same Old, Same Old-these ridiculous concessions, a dictator gets his cut, so both dictator and Samo are happy. Who cares about the looted and raped population? When they rise up, like they eventually did in Somalia, Samo will send in his troops "to restore order" in a "peace and humanitarian" mission. Similarly, World Bank and International Monetary Fund loans are often just bribes to Samo's favorite dictators. It's how Uncle does business.
In announcing the arrest of Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19 years old, the FBI said that he "acted alone," but this is contradicted by the very narrative told by the FBI itself: The agency provided Mohamud with cash, fake bombs and van. It abetted him every step of the way, but the idea for mass murder came from Mohamud alone, the FBI charges. In the affidavit, the FBI recounts a meeting in a Portland hotel room where Mohamud told an undercover FBI agent that he wanted to be "operational," that "he wanted to put an explosion together," that "he has heard of brothers putting stuff in a car, parking it by a target, and detonating it." In short, Mohamud hatched up the bomb plot entirely by himself, except the FBI has no proof of this. The affidavit states that the agent "was equipped with audio equipment to record the meeting. However, due to technical problems the meeting was not recorded." All the other meetings were recorded and/or filmed, but this one, where intentionality could have been unequivocally established, was conveniently not.
Like all patsies, Mohamud doesn't appear too bright. Before being approached by an undercover agent on June 23rd, he was prevented from boarding an airplane on June 14th. He wanted to fly to Alaska for a summer job. Knowing that he was on a no-fly list, that he was already on the government's radar, Mohamud didn't lie low but fell into the FBI's trap nine days later. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the underwear bomber, was allowed onto an airplane to carry out a bomb plot. Mohamud, on the other hand, was prevented from boarding an airplane so he could carry out another bomb plot. Grounded, he could be groomed into a wannabe terrorist by two FBI agents.
Dude wasn't too bright. As quoted in the affidavit, Mohamud could barely stutter his way through a sentence without overdosing on "you know" and other verbal mishaps. In one of the recorded meetings, Mohamud did state that deterrence and revenge were his two motivations. He wanted "in general just a huge mass that will, you know like for them you know to be attacked in their own element with their families celebrating the holiday. And then for later to be saying, this was them for you to refrain from killing our children, women... so when they hear all these families were killed in such a such a city they'll say you know what your actions you know they will stop you know. And it's not fair they should do that to people and not feeling it."
Translation: Mohamud wanted us to stop killing Muslims. It's not right that we can kill people without feeling it. If our own families were killed, we would know what it's like and perhaps stop the carnage.
Our president was awarded a Nobel Peace prize, hold the laugh track and applause, please, but two years into his reign, we still have nearly 200,000 soldiers occupying two Muslim countries. How many of those are also after revenge and deterrence? Unlike Mohamud, however, with his pathetic, FBI-assisted duds, how many of our young men and women have exploded real bombs, shot real bullets into real bodies, destroyed countless families without remorse? Mohamud may be a fool, even a murderous one, but he's at least correct in this observation: America can kill without feeling anything. Our invasion and occupation of Iraq has caused over a million deaths, a fact that hardly registers here. Like Barbara Bush and her beautiful mind, we have so much else to entertain and distract us.
47 Comments so far
Show AllI think this FBI charade was to force Portland to rejoin the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
It's a tragedy that they will put a young American citizen in prison for life to pull this off.
Check this out:
"Five years ago, Portland became the first city in the nation to withdraw from the FBI-led [Joint Terrorism] task force."
Then, the Gestapo fabricated its crime.
Now:
"Portland Mayor Sam Adams and Police Chief Mike Reese have discussed for months whether Portland should rejoin the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a multi-agency group that investigated Friday's failed plot to set off a bomb downtown."
Adams said. "If I believe there is a compelling public safety reason to change Portland's existing relationship with the JTTF, I will not hesitate to propose one to the City Council."
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/11/portland_mayor_police_chief_di.html
Good point and excellent article, more like this please CD, less apologetics for Obummer.
What's missing in the comments, as well as the damning article, is any clue of a path forward.
Why? The liberal and 'progressive' orientation of CD and most of its readers render them incapable of presenting a coherent, historically supportable political program.
Why? There is no capitalist model, no matter how 'reformed', 'liberal' or 'social democratic' that leads to even the most obvious humanitarian goals of worldwide peace, sustainability, equality and affluence.
Why? From its demented brain to its blood-soaked skin, capitalism absolutely depends upon exploitation and dominance. In the super-degenerated imperialist stage, it cannot even function without war.
OK, what shall we do? Build the Leninist party of international proletarian communist revolution.
Why? Without a disciplined, democratic centralist party elected to the head of militant, organized labor, all revolutionary impulses will end in failure.
How do I know that? October, 1917.
That Leninist party sounds like another 'Taliban' to me. Authoritarina centralization and disciplined militants -- no thanks -- we've seen where that has always led.
Thanks for the profound insight, Pilgrim. ...And what is it that you propose?
Expect silence or obfuscation in answer to that question, because there is no other known humanitarian paradigm besides world socialism, and there is no way to get there except the overthrow of capitalism by the organized working class under the leadership of a Leninist party.
To equate superstitious fundamentalism with scientific socialism would be ludicrous if the situation were not so threatening. ...But it is, and such an equation is more like betrayal.
You don't get silence -- but a somewhat delayed response because I'm busy with other things.
When you say 'there is no other...' you show very limited thinking and ignorance of political science and sociology -- but more disturbing to me is the attitude of 'my way or the highway': and that is exactly the authoritarianism and rigidity of Leninism I object to. Your 'scientific socialism' sounds very much like superstitios fundamentalism to me -- 'my way or the higway', 'there is no other..'.
Leninism is rejected by the great majority of socialists/communists, and with very good reason. You should read up on these these issues and think about them a lot more before you make such sweeping statements. Lenin was not about democracy or the power of the people, and 'under the leadership of a Leninist party' is just another bid for power by a few. Count me out!!
We live under the sharia law of the pretend christian Taliban starting in 1980. Since then the incarcerated population has quadrupled, which along with those on probation and/or parole some 10 million Americans are involved in the criminal justice system. 1980 Reagan had to court the fundamentalist pretend christian Taliban to win the election and to implement their version of sharia laws on the American public. Along with the PIC, Prison Industrial Complex and the graft, corruption and bribery that goes with it, states have implemented American Taliban laws to increase the profits of the Privatized prisons.
Isn't this called entrapment?
But, no one dare question the events of 9/11, and how that greased the wheels of the "liberty-stripping agendas".
Apologies to SaboCat, Ardent1, and others who absolutely hate "troofers".
The movie with endangered Julie Andrews and kids singing in the Alps?
What a waste of taxpayer’s money. At worst Mohamed Osman Mohamud should be charged as an accessory to the FBI's screwed up intentions. We are all well aware of the 80% follower (group think) mentality that plagues the minds of indoctrinated children incapable of having a sound independent thought in fear of consequences from those in power.
FBI is clearly guilty of plotting numerous terrorist attacks, especially on the gullible minds of Americans. Sentenced to be disbanded. (One can dream)
Here's a clear case of a blind snake eating its own tail. Our republic is lost, and at this stage the end of empire is imminent.
"Translation: Mohamud wanted us to stop killing Muslims. It's not right that we can kill people without feeling it. If our own families were killed, we would know what it's like and perhaps stop the carnage." -- Linh Dinh
I can't help but think back to John Steinbeck's controversial book, The Moon Is Down. If you haven't read the book, it's a story centered on a town that finds itself occupied by foreign troops. In this case, the foreign troops are not necessarily physically abusive to the citizens, except that they are everywhere, and the occupiers have guns. Slowly at first, the citizens take up small acts of resistance, and the citizens, and even the doctor in the occupied town, finally resort to acts of violence in response to the occupation. People/citizens do NOT like to be occupied by others who point guns at them, even if the men holding the guns are not killing their citizens.
In the case of the U.S., the military is killing men, women and children, imprisoning people without charging them with a crime, sending drones in to murder masses of people, etc. And, we found out recently that most young men in remote parts of Afghanistan didn't know anything about 9/11.
Linh Dinh, thanks for writing so eloquently about these issues!
Glenn Greenwald, this morning, also wrote about this issue on salon.com.
be afraid..... be very afraid....
and now those pat -down's don't seem very bad do they?
It's no coincidence that this happened at exactly the same time normal, uninformed (redundant i know) americans were beginning to complain about the loss of personal rights -
straight out of the bush playbook
So I'm wondering about the next time I have to travel by air. If I decline the radiation scan and get groped, do I get to grope the TSA agent groping me? Would the TSA arrest me and charge me with assault? Could I counter-sue?
Could the gov't ever find a jury to convict someone who groped a TSA agent in response to being groped?
There's no such thing as entrapment anymore. The police can offer drugs and women for sale and when someone bites, they are arrested. You can't break the law to enforce the law or there is no law. The only rights we have are those granted to us not by the Constitution but by assholes named Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Kennedy. We must rise and overthrow this awful pigocracy or we will be strangled by our chains.
I like "kleptocracy".
Excellent, brother Lind and Greenwald can give us the legal understanding of the misanthropes in our so-called Home Land Security agents of safety.
delete duplicate
Good article by Dinh. Through no fault of his, though, it's likely that he's preaching to the choir here. Or, conversely, that dull and complacent Normals are generally unable or unwilling to grasp that the noble and virtuous Amerikan government is playing them like fiddles with this perpetual "reality teevee" marathon of manufactured incidents of "terrorism".
Oh, there IS very real terrorism involved in this charade. But it's not coming from the pitiful tools and pigeons set up to be busted with not-ready-for-prime-time home-made weapons of mass destruction.
It ought to be obvious by now to anyone who isn't a dope or a dupe that in a authoritarian police state like the US, state security services are tasked with facilitating or outright staging sensational "terrorist" plots, schemes, and "attacks" in order to justify their existence and keep the fearful and credulous public in a permanent state of paranoid anxiety-- aka "terror".
This analysis doesn't exclude the possibility that real, authentic terrorist operatives exist and carry out real, authentic acts of terroristic violence. From the Hollow State security perspective, so much the better! A few real, random, terrorist actions are indispensible in justifying the manufactured-terrorism racket.
But a police state can't DEPEND on real terrorists to keep the pot boiling! As noted ad infinitum, a determined "international terrorist organization" could contrive hundreds of ways to wreak sabotage and bloody domestic Amerikan destruction without involving airlines, aircraft, and mis-engineered explosive devices.
But those cursed Islamofascist Evildoers don't seem to be working very hard at this, damn them! So synthetic terrorist bugaboos are proudly Made in the USA.
If there are surviving generations in Amerika and elsewhere, they will look back on this era just as my generation looked back on Nazi Germany, and wonder how an entire populace could be gulled, fooled, confused, misled, and in deep denial.
O, ja, we saw the smoke rising-- but we never dreamed it was being blown up our collective ass!
"But those cursed Islamofascist Evildoers don't seem to be working very hard at this, damn them! So synthetic terrorist bugaboos are proudly Made in the USA."
Yes, it is irksome that even though we continue to occupy two countries, drone attack several others, have killed untold innocents and sent two countries back to the stone age, we still can't get those Evil Muslims to do much in the way of attacking us. How to keep the course to martial law? How to keep the hate and fear at peak levels year after year?
Turns out it's not too tough. The thought police must be laughing at how easy it is in this nation of cowards and killers.
If the FBI or each of the sixteen Federal spy agencies set up individual entrapment groups, targeting races, religions and political affiliation, they will be overwhelmed with so many arrest you may wonder what happens to the good old USA. I have a strong feeling these agencies are here in CD searching candidates for entrapment.
I will take a step further; Michael Moore, Greenwald or even Linh Dinh could be the Agencies' agent. The US have become so complex you just need to watch where you are, walk, talk or associate with.
sivasm, as much as I believe that we are well on our way toward 1984-land, I worry about the effects of a post such as this one. I've talked to several people who are afraid to avail themselves of much of the information on the Internet that might be considered subversive--and they define this very broadly, as in just about anything that questions the official MSM accounts. This fear-based avoidance certainly isn't in the interests of a progressive movement, and propogating it in such a post is dangerous. The alternative to some level of trust is rampant paranoia and fear.
Gee, maybe you're an agent. Gee, maybe I am.
Elizabeth, Please do not feel offended, I may have exceeded my suspicion. Nevertheless, we need to be EXTREMELY careful. I am not a young man anymore and understand what our government is capable of doing with vast power and unlimited resources. I have the greatest admiration and respect for Glenn Greenwald, I read his column everyday before I stumble onto CD. However, my deep desire for this Nation to move forward to a third party "Progressive" government, overcome my fear to participate in this forum. Thanks you and have a good Christmas and a happy New Year.
I don't feel offended. I'm not even convinced you're wrong, except when you say we need to be "EXTREMELY careful." No, we need to be extremely upfront. If things are as bad as many of us suspect, we're screwed anyway. So get it out before this whole Internet pathway is shut down, and if we're being tracked, we've already been tracked. So eff it.
Thank you, Justice Arcs.
It is ironic that there is resistance to "profile" people at airports, but the FBI profiles people every time they need an arrest.
Yes, it seems we badly need behavioral profiling to replace the scan/molest abuses. We could incorporate everyone on a flight to meet and help vet fellow passengers. They are the ones needing security, and they are the ones who need to be vetted.
Dear Government:
It's like, you know, I really can understand, you know, this Somali person, because, you know, our nation is killing all kinds of people, you know, like wedding people, and at funerals too. You know, that is weird to kill people at a funeral, you know?
You know, if we really weren't , you know, killing people all over, you know, the world, then maybe, you know, they wouldn't want to, you know, kill us!
You know, maybe we should, you know, stop killing people, you know, for a while, and you know, see if that helps.
I think, you really do, you know, get what I'm, you know, saying, and I think, you know, that you really do, know. Why though?
Well it's like, you know, whatever
I'm confused. Are you making fun of this kid? Besides his degraded language, which is mostly a criticism of our refusal to teach people to speak their minds, I don't see how he's wrong. I deal with this sort of blather every day, but don't despair over it. We have not given our children a way of speaking their minds clearly. As they try to enter the conversation, they sound like people in a state of shock, which is entirely appropriate. They are in a state of shock.
Turning our "country of laws" over to lawyers, spies, economists, military and businesspeople instead of consulting with people who understand the laws of nature could be the problem.
Great posts: Kay, Obedient & Justice. Gracias.
Nearly everything about this country is now a consummate lie, so why shouldn't the FBI contrive terrorism? It's just a continuation of how they've operated for decades. The lies we have thrown at us daily by the corporate propaganda network and its government are so thick I don't see how any of us can breathe any more.
Both the Shoe and the Underwear had PENT which requires percussion to explode not ignition ergo they were not part of any terrorist organization and most likely patsies of you know who.
And the Underwear boarded without a Passport and all the Airports involved ( and Bostons Logan on (9/11) had security operated by the same israeli company.
The USA has forgotten what having a war in your very own neighbourhood feels like. I hope I live to see the day when they are reminded.
Full body scanners... coming to a train station/bus station/mall near you.
Enjoy your Police State. It's the level of 'security' and 'safety' you demanded...
SOP
SSDD
Oh happy day! The FBI saved us from the terrorist.
The Somali oil connection seems farfetched, especially when other, non Somali American natives have been similarly entrapped, including the four young American black ex-cons from Newburg New York recently convicted in federal court in Manhattan for plotting to bomb two synagogues and shoot down some Air Force planes.
The successful use against an entrapment defense requires that the defendants be both predisposed to the plot and capable of carrying it out. Attending cross examination it seemed clear to me that the proof of the former was conveniently missing, as it was in the Somali case, and obvious that the defendants were not remotely capable of carrying out the plot on their own. Why the FBI went to such great expense and bother is a mystery to me. However, with them on tape being lead to discuss the acts made if very difficult, even when eminently reasonable, for the jury to find them innocent, even after 8 days of deliberation.
Our Father who art on Wall Street
Malicious greed be thy game
Your kingdom kills
So your will can come.
Hiprocracy is thy name.
Hoa binh